Lightning Hits Kings in Final Minutes

Maybe it’s an only-on-Saturday deal.

Or the new formation.

An anniversary celebration.

Desperation, perhaps?

Of course, some lip from the opposing bench helped.

A lot.

What was left of the Kings got two goals from Glen Murray, including one on the power play, but then they kicked away a two-goal lead in the third period and had to settle for a 3-3 tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night at Staples Center.

The Lightning got goals from Chris Gratton and Stan Drulia in the final 2:38 to force the overtime.

While a power-play goal might not have been that significant a month ago, it was downright oasis-like in the Staples Center desert.

The power outage has reached three for 44, but Murray’s goal brought a flicker, if not a surge. It was the Kings’ first power-play goal in a week, and while there was a five-day hiatus for the players involved, the power play has been on vacation largely since about Halloween.

Murray has scored all three of those goals, the other two coming a week ago against San Jose.

Beginning the night without winger Ziggy Palffy, because of back spasms, and defenseman Aki Berg, because of flu, the Kings showed the announced 17,407 on hand a running start when Reid Simpson was guilty of a boarding violation, initiating a power play.

So what?

There had been seven King power plays only 24 hours earlier at the Arrowhead Pond. There proved no advantage at all to having a man advantage.

“It was bad because a power play would have won the game,” defenseman Rob Blake said after a 1-1 tie with the Mighty Ducks.

Only 57 seconds after Simpson’s transgression, Lightning Coach Steve Ludzik made a bad situation worse, disagreeing with referee Lance Roberts over a non-call and doing so with enough vehemence to prompt Roberts to deal out a bench minor.

The Kings’ odds were five on three, still no sure thing, even with 63 seconds to take advantage of it. They last scored in such a situation against St. Louis on Oct. 4, and five other opportunities have come and gone since.

This time, they set up with an extra forward, Luc Robitaille joining Bryan Smolinski, Donald Audette and Murray, with Rob Blake around the blue line. Normally, Fran Kaberle teams with Blake on the power play, but instead Smolinski skated back to defenseman and he and Blake played a little pitch and catch, while Murray set up about 20 feet from Tampa Bay goalie Dan Cloutier.

Smolinski launched the shot from well outside, and the puck glanced off Murray’s skate and into the goal for a 1-0 lead.

It became 2-0 when Vladimir Tsyplakov, subbing for Palffy, earned a goal by taking a pass from Jason Blake at 10:30. Robitaille also earned an assist on the play, his first point since coming back after a lengthy stay on the injured list because of a broken bone in his left foot.

The Lightning made certain that there would be no coasting, cutting the lead in half with a goal by Todd Warriner, who scored after taking a pass from Dan Kesa that skittered under the stick of King defenseman Jaroslav Modry.

From there, it became King goalie Jamie Storr’s game.

Starting for the 10th time in the last 11 games, he turned back 27 shots only a night after holding the Mighty Ducks to a single goal.

In those 10 games, he has given up only 18 goals.

Until the last minutes, Storr received support from the King defense, which virtually eliminated his having to deal with rebound shots, and from Murray’s goal at 15:23 of the third period, which made breathing a bit easier, though for only a while.

Chris Gratton scored on a Tampa Bay power play at 17:22, again cutting back on the coasting. And Drulia’s goal cut back on the celebrating.

Robitaille provided a bit of King offense in what was essentially a defensive show when he beat Darcy Tucker to a loose puck and set sail to the Lightning goal. Robitaille, who had seven of his 10 goals in his the Kings’ first five games, was caught by Tucker’s stick and managed a weak shot off the goal post.